Emergency homeless shelters to open Monday in Santa Clara County

Starting Monday, some homeless folks will have a chance at winning the lottery.

Not the California Lottery, but the random determination of who will get a bed inside the cold-weather shelter opening this week at the Boccardo Reception Center in San Jose.

Shelters will open for the season at Boccardo and also at the National Guard armories in Gilroy and Sunnyvale, making available 365 beds for adults.

It means that Paul Charleston, Boccardo's chef, will prepare about 1,000 meals a day for the three shelters. On Sunday, he was putting spicy chicken legs and herbed potatoes into the industrial ovens, to feed 135 residents in the transitional-shelter program, which runs year-round. Starting Monday, with the addition of those seeking emergency shelter, the center's nightly population will nearly double.

On the one hand, Boccardo resident James L. Vaughn is lucky. He's in the transitional program and doesn't have to depend on a lottery to get emergency shelter at night. On the other hand, he noted, he's still searching for services and a home. "I'm not part of the 1 percent," he noted wryly. "I'm part of the 99 percent."

The 55-year-old military vet and former plasterer lived under a bridge and has bounced around. The veterans' service program at Boccardo helped get his pension restarted, meaning he may soon be able to afford his own place.

Perilous weather

In Santa Clara County, emergency shelters offer about 1,000 beds during cold months. That doesn't nearly cover the estimated 7,000 people officials believe are homeless at any given time in the county.

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"It's nowhere near enough," said Jenny Niklaus, CEO of EHC LifeBuilders, a nonprofit that contracts with the county to run shelter programs. And for families, emergency shelter is even more scarce because cold-weather shelters do not accept anyone under 18.

The added shelters usually open the Monday after Thanksgiving, sometimes earlier if the weather is inclement. This year, temperatures are more forgiving, with nights expected to dip into the mid-40s early this week, and to the lower 40s from Thursday, National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin said. But fortunately for those living on the streets, there is no rain in sight.

Wet weather is considered more perilous to homeless people for two reasons. Once soaked, those without shelter have a hard time warming up. And rain-swollen rivers wash away encampments and drown campers, Niklaus said. "In cold weather, nights become a more desperate situation."

People are dying

In the larger picture, Niklaus and others hope that the need to run emergency shelters will diminish, by steering homeless people to appropriate care. "Unless they have jobs or skills or get help for mental illness," said Jennifer Van Every of EHC LifeBuilders, "they will never get off the streets."

Boccardo has become a one-stop homeless center, offering various services.

Santa Clara County, San Jose and nonprofits have launched Destination Home, an effort to coordinate care and services. Among its goals is getting 1,000 homeless people into housing by 2013.

"People are dying," Niklaus said. "I will take no less than success."

Every night, in the faces of those asking for shelter, and especially of those turned away because the inns are full, shelter workers are reminded of the hazards of street life in winter.

At 11 a.m. on Dec. 15, at a ceremony at the Boccardo Reception Center, EHC will honor the lives of homeless people who died in the past year. In 2010, the total was 52. The program hasn't completed its tally for 2011. With stepped-up efforts to get people off the streets and into programs, she said, "My hope is it will be much less this year."